SEATTLE — The U.S. national team is convinced it can win the World Cup.
Now the Americans are actually convincing others, outside their locker room.
Others like Swedish icon Zlatan Ibrahimovic, serving as a pundit on Fox.
Asked flatly Friday if the U.S. were capable of winning its first World Cup, the former striker and serial winner had a frank, one-word response.
“Yes,” Ibrahimovic said after the United States’ 2-0 victory over Australia that booked its advancement to the knockout round of 32.
Of course, they are aiming higher. Far higher. Having already clinched their group — for just the third time in their history — and doing it with a game to spare has raised the bar.
Think going from a hurdle to a high jump. Winning the World Cup would be more like a pole vault. But that’s the target — one they’re starting to get others to believe in, too.
“I mean, that’s our mindset. I don’t think you enter this tournament to not have that mindset,” center back Auston Trusty said when told of Ibrahimovic’s praise. Or was it a prediction?
“But we’re taking it game by game, we’re focusing ourselves, and that’s all we can really do. To have him say that about us, that’s amazing.”
Ibrahimovic knows a fair share about winning. He earned 34 trophies in his career, though a World Cup was never one of them. The 44-year-old said the U.S. has a shot to accomplish something his Swedish teams never could.
“I said it before: Whatever happened before the World Cup is not as important as what happens now. Now is the momentum they have,” Ibrahimovic said. “If you didn’t believe before, I will repeat: Start believing. Have the country behind them.”
The U.S. will close out Group D on Thursday at SoFi Stadium versus Turkey. But having already booked a knockout date versus a third-place foe has raised outside expectations to match their own.
“Every game, every tournament we play in, we want to win,” center back Chris Richards said of Ibrahimovic’s praise. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that we want to win. “Obviously we have a lot more games before we get to that moment, but we take it one game at a time. We want to win a trophy at the end of this.”
The U.S. will host its round of 32 match July 1 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara against an undetermined opponent. It will be a third-place team from any of Groups B, E, F, I or J, leaving a myriad of up to 20 foes still on the board.
But the likeliest may be the winner of Wednesday’s Qatar versus Bosnia-Herzegovina Group B match, if there is one. The victor would probably face the U.S., while a tie would open up a bunch of scenarios involving more than 12 teams. The U.S. could face the third-place squad from Groups J, I, E and F.
Whoever it is has onlookers expecting more, with 1994 captain Tony Meola saying a quarterfinal should be the goal and even Bruce Arena — who coached them to the 2002 quarterfinal — suggesting they could aim even higher.
“There’s no reason to believe that we can’t be a team that can get through the round of 32, challenge in the round of 16, and maybe dream of being in quarterfinals and possibly semifinals,” Arena said Saturday on “Coaches’ Corner.”
“I don’t think it’s surprising to any of us. We’ve known what this team is capable of if we put everything together,” center back Tim Ream said. “I don’t think any of us are surprised. People can say whatever they want, and people can be surprised. The pieces have always been there. It was just putting them all together.”
